TO POETRY

 

A. KULESHOV

Translated from Russian by G. K. G. Joshi

 

I am your prisoner, and you my prison.

By your love I’m sentenced rigourously.

In vain my term of imprisonment.

Attractive to others,

You yourself hasten to reduce...

In vain, you watch man...

Doubly diminish,

Intentionally injurious,

Not concealing

A senseless judgment

So funny foreseen by you.

And I run away from custody...

Nevertheless I will roar in chains.

I stroll to perform through painting,

Starve and sit

In the detection house.

You deprive me

Of incompetent words.

Wholly dictating, my fate, my judge,

You selected me …

Your prisoner.

Permanently for life.

 

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